Alberto Rubio
With a selection of Christmas carols performed by 25 pupils from the Scandinavian School in Madrid, the Swedish Embassy celebrated on Wednesday the traditional feast of Saint Lucy, the date that marks the beginning of the Christmas festivities in Scandinavian countries.
Ambassador Teppo Tauriainen, after thanking the guests who attended, among them many ambassadors, pointed out that this celebration has a special character in Spain because for sixty years the Gran Canarian town of Santa Lucia de Tirajana has been commemorating it twinned with the Swedish town of Luleå.
Although the cult of Saint Lucy, a young Christian martyr, was initially located in Sicily, where she was born, it soon spread to the rest of Europe, to the extent that in northern Europe she is known as “the light bearer”, and her day is celebrated by giving gifts to loved ones.
